Le nounou de Noël

Gay Sam (Jonathan Bennett) agrees to babysit his niece and nephew around Christmas while his sister and her husband go to pick up a baby they adopted. He has a little trouble with the kids so he asks for help from the next door neighbor Jason (George Krissa). Turns out Jason is gay also and, as he helps Sam, they become attracted to each other. However Jason wants kids and Sam doesn't.

Utterly predictable but sweet movie. It's VERY G rated but it's colorful and has a good cast. Bennett and Krissa play off each other very well although Bennett has a tendency to overact at times. Still I applaud that we finally have a gay rom-com! Also there are two nice kisses between the guys at the end :) No great shakes but sweet.

It's hard to believe it's taken Hallmark this long to make a Christmas themed movie where the main characters, attracted to each other, are the same sex. But, good for Hallmark! We love Jonathan Bennett. This was a very funny movie and like most other Hallmark holiday movies, a bit over the top but, that's what we want when we tune in to Hallmark. Especially their holiday films.

This movie was as predictable as most others but, the fact it revolved around a gay couple, was a welcome change to reality. Love happens, even between same sex couples! Honestly, we enjoyed the premise and comical events in this so much, the fact it focused on two men was forgotten. It was another entertaining holiday romcom from Hallmark. We feel Halmark has outdone itself this season with a number of good holiday movies.

I watch a ton of Christmas movies (Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu etc) and rank them on letterboxd. The UK movie "Christmas Number One" has been my top ranked movie for about 5 weeks now (out of 64 new movies so far this year).

Welp, it was just knocked off it's spot by THE HOLIDAY SITTER. I love this movie! I was looking forward to it as Hallmark's first Christmas movie featuring a gay lead couple. It didn't disappoint. It's light and funny and genuine with two gorgeous and sweet leads who have electric chemistry together.

The plot is a fish-out-of-water story about a guy who is roped into babysitting his neice and nephew for a few days before Christmas due to a family emergency. He has no idea what to do with kids but, fortunately, the hot guy next door loves children and is willing to lend a hand.

There's comedy, romance, and some genuine family feels. I loved the character arc of the lead who goes from "I never want to get married or have kids" to falling for the guy *and* the kids and family life. There's a moving discussion he has with his sister about the queen experience.

The script is quite good, but it's the leads who make this special. Thank you, Hallmark, Jonathan Bennett, and George Krissa for making this landmark movie so beautiful.

This movie had such wit and a minimal amount of the usual "Hallmarky" tropes, I almost had to check and see if I fell by accident into Netflix!

Jonathan Bennett is charming as all-get-out. As Executive Producer, I am assuming he got the script he wanted, which is well above the average for the Hallmark Machine. And he is clearly very invested in what he is doing. Of course, the usual things happen--a near-kiss at the one-hour mark and a misunderstanding at the one hour forty-five minutes mark, etc. But, this one has a distinct lack of cheese and the usual overstuffed silliness.

The Gay angle really works here, as opposed to some other films they make when they try to shoehorn Gay characters into one of their usual plots (listen to a podcast by the brilliant Bobby Leiber for more on this topic) and expect it to work. But, as this film is set in the NYC Metro it is very plausible that their romance could bloom in a friendly, accepting environment. Honestly, I was watching this with the intention of having an amusing "Hate Watch," but was pleasantly surprised. HALLMARK: Keep on breaking that cookie cutter with which you make WAY too many movies. Doing something different might engage more viewers!

Much is made about the gay theme of this movie, but the bottom line is, is it entertaining ? What we came away with is that Hallmark should let its stable of actors continue to do more directing and writing for its movies. Jonathan Bennett, who plays the main character here (Uncle Sam) participated in the writing of this story. Like Paul Campbell and Kimberley Sustad have demonstrated in their writing for Hallmark, the script is fresh, with snappy dialogue, and very natural and true to life. This was directed by Ali Liebert, who, like Sustad, is one of Hallmark's best and most natural actresses, and here she demonstrates a real talent for directing a movie.

That said, the first hour of this movie is very funny, mostly due to Bennett's performance, which doesn't hinge on him being gay or straight. His character is simply funny as a person, and Bennett plays it wonderfully.

The second half of the movie is pretty standard stuff for a Hallmark romcom, but it is still entertaining because of Bennett's sincere and endearing performance and because the supporting cast of players are all quite good, particularly Chelsea Hobbs (who played the wicked Blair in the now beloved "Nine Lives of Christmas") as Sam's sister, Mila Morgan (one of the best of Hallmark's child performers) as Sam's niece, who also has a couple of pretty hilarious scenes in the first hour, and George Krissa as Jason, the neighbor Sam is attracted to.

All in all, this was a fun, sincere, and entertaining two hours that, for us, just demonstrates that Hallmark should encourage its talented performers to continue writing and directing - gay or straight, who cares ? - they bring something different and fresh to the Hallmark Christmas schedule.